Giving Thanks 2010 Style

I have so much to be thankful for this year! Rather than provide you with a nonsensical narrative, I will create a brief list. Here we go!
1.) I am grateful to live in a beautiful home. It took so long to find the right house, and I am also thankful for my awesome realtor, Will, who really listened to my needs and helped me find the perfect place to live!
2.) I have wonderful friends, both here in Las Vegas and spread out all over the country (and abroad)!
3.) I am thankful for people who have come into and enriched my life, even for a brief period of time.
4.) My career has provided me with much fulfillment. My students make me smile every day!
5.) I am grateful for my family, near and far.
6.) I am so very thankful for the conveniences of modern life... DVR, wireless internet, indoor plumbing!
7.) My new ward has been so welcoming! I already feel like I'm part of that ward family! I haven't felt this way for a long time.

Is it too much to ask???

Dear female coworkers,
Since we all spend between 8-12 hours a day at work, it is inevitable that we will all have to use the restroom at least once a day. Now, I understand that there are a lot of us gals at work; we outnumber our male coworkers at a ratio of at least ten to one. Also, I'm not saying its fair that over fifty of us ladies share only two bathroom stalls. It is never fun to spend your entire twenty minute lunch break waiting in line for the restroom (while simultaneously microwaving/eating lunch, photocopying, monitoring detention students, etc...).

I know that our bathroom situation is far less than ideal. However, there are a few simple rules that can make sharing two stalls with fifty women somewhat tolerable:
1.) CLEAN UP after yourself! When I use the restroom, I should not find pubic hairs or sprays of urine on the seat.
2.) The bathroom stall should never look like someone just had an abortion in there. I understand that we all endure that special time of the month and perhaps accidents happen, but CLEAN IT UP, PEOPLE!!!
3.) I know it is too much to ask CCSD to actually have functional toilet paper dispensers in faculty restrooms. I get it. I know it is not ideal to have multiple rolls of toilet paper precariously perched along the handicapped arm rail. However, try (just TRY!) to not dunk an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet bowl. No one wants to fish that out. And once it happens, that stall is unusable for the whole day, which effectively reduces our restroom capacity by 50%.

I don't think this is asking too much. Can we please learn to share our space in a way that is respectful to everyone? Thanks, and as always, I love you.

Hugs,
Heather Bay

Steve for House District 11

Steve is running for Utah House District 11. This is one of three campaign videos I made for him. As you can imagine, the other two are much more serious and appropriate in nature. But after five hours of serious commercial-making, I was starting to go a little batty.


PS: Adult Swim, you should totally give me a job. I can willingly abandon all appropriate filmmaking/editing skills and adopt, at will, the editing style of a high school sophomore.

Never Take Clean Laundry for Granted!

My washing machine broke six weeks ago and has still not been fixed. Alliance Home Warranty sent a total of four repairmen. Here's the rundown:  

• Repairman #1: He made several racist comments (ie: I'm Korean, and he said, "I've never seen a Chinaman who couldn't do laundry, hardee har har."). He told me that he was going to order every part under the sun and then sell them on Craigslist. Insurance fraud, much?  
• Repairman #2: He did not bring any tools, attempted to repair my washer with his bare hands, and yelled at me for not providing him with tools.
• Repairman #3: Arrived at 8pm (two hours after the service window), was clearly intoxicated, and smelled like marijuana. He fell asleep on the floor of my laundry room for two hours. When I asked him to leave, he barricaded himself in the laundry room and locked me out. I had to call 911 to have him removed.  
• Repairman #4: He brought tools, was prompt, and was not intoxicated, which I'm learning is a lot to ask for. However, he left on 10/5/10 because he needed to order parts, and the parts arrived on 10/12/10. Two weeks later, and they refuse to return to complete the repair. 

I have called Alliance on a DAILY basis, and they refuse to do anything. For example, I spent an hour tonight on the phone with customer service. I spoke with three reps, each one more useless and volatile than the one before. One of them told me he was giving me a "direct line" to a higher supervisor, proceeded to give me a bogus 800 number, and then hung up. I found it interesting that EACH customer service rep I spoke with tonight not only claimed to be the shift supervisor, but also claimed to be the ONLY shift supervisor on duty in the call center; clearly, they are very dishonest. The bottom line is that SIX WEEKS has gone by and my washer is still broken. Alliance refuses to repair or replace my washer, and is breaking the terms of our contractual agreement.

Hot for Teacher?

Back in graduate school, when professors asked what kind of teacher I wanted to be, I never thought I'd be on stage in front of hundreds of elementary school aged kids playing a parody version of a Queen song. I'm proud to be the kind of teacher that is willing to make a fool of myself for the sake of getting kids excited about reading. I'm also very proud of my excellent colleagues (Pam, Laura, and Emily) who endured (enjoyed?) hours of band practice, even after 8+ grueling hours of teaching in hot steamy classrooms with no air conditioning.

PS: Our kid-friendly band name is "The Rock-Its." We chose it because our school mascot is an astronaut.
PPS: We're still seeking ideas for a real name for our band, you know, for when we make it big (ie: play a poorly attended gig in the burbs). I suggested "Hot for Teacher," but that was quickly shot down. lol.  Any band name ideas are welcome!

Home Sweet Home!

Well, hell must be freezing over because I finally got the perfect house! After two years of looking and with the help of an awesome realtor, I found a beautiful house in a quiet neighborhood. The house is only three years old, and even though its a foreclosure, the previous owner left it in pristine condition. The bank put new flooring in throughout and also painted. I'm not going to post a lot of details because I'm pretty sure I saw an episode of Dateline that started with some naive newlyweds posting every detail of their new house and new purchases (flat screen tvs, furniture, appliances, etc...), and ended with them being immediately robbed by random internet browsers. Also, I'm pretty certain that they were also tied up and shot or bludgeoned or forced to watch Spongebob Squarepants. Something like that.

Anyway, Steve came over and we changed the locks. He also managed to program both garage door openers. The selling agent removed the lock box and "for sale" sign. Now I feel confident that my boxes of college dishes and dirty cleaning rags will be safe from the wandering hordes of street gangs (there aren't street gangs... yet).

For those who haven't heard the news...

Steve propsed on Wednesday, July 28th after a quiet, romantic, leisurely dinner on the patio at one of our favorite restaurants, The Red Iguana.

Ignorance is Bliss

Steve and I were in the market for a car stereo. After getting a nearly $800 quote from the car dealer and a $500 quote from Best Buy, we decided to go with a local car stereo shop which came recommended by both Steve's brother aaaaand the sales guy at the car dealer. The local shop was charging $120 total for the exact same stereo and install, plus they could install the next morning.

So we go to the local shop. Picture your average car stereo shop in a not-awesome part of town with a super courteous employee behind the counter. While browsing around and checking out various stereos, Steve pulls me aside and solemnly says, "I think you should know something. This store was the site of some really brutal homicides back in the 70's."

WHAT?

He goes on to tell me that the employees and customers were bound, tortured, and murdered. He started to go into details, but that's when I stopped him; however not before he told me about the murderers jamming pens into people's ears and stomping on them as a form of torture.

So now it's almost three in the morning and I can't stop thinking about. I already had one nightmare. I didn't want Steve to share any more of the details, and we agreed that next time we're hanging out at the site of a high-profile homicide, he should just say, "Honey, we're in a bad neighborhood," and leave it at that. I read about the "infamous criminal case" on wikipedia, and while I might vomit, I'm finding a strange sense of security knowing that it wasn't as bad as my wandering mind allowed it to become. I feel super creepy going there tomorrow morning to drop off the car. And I'm definitely not hanging out there for a couple hours waiting for the install. In my rational mind, I know that the murders happened almost forty years ago, but I feel sick just thinking about it.

Yah, I really could have been just fine not knowing any of that. Or this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_Murders

To those who are about to blog...

Many of my friends have included these very sad six words in their blog entries: In case anyone actually reads this...

And to this, I say, "YES. I actually do read your blog." It doesn't matter if we haven't seen each other since we shared a shopping cart eight years ago at a grocery store in Provo. Or if we recently got in touch on facebook. I'm not an online stalker; I'm much too overworked and underpaid for that. I do, however, enjoy seeing how my friends' lives have turned out with careers, kids, families. All of those other things we have done (college, missions, starting careers, graduate school) have really prepared us for this place in life where we are now. I genuinely enjoy reading about your family vacations, potty training your kids, craft projects, career moves, etc...

So to those who are about to blog, I salute you.

(Clearly, I'm a dork. Please overlook this.)

Where has summer gone?

Hello friends! It has been a relatively quiet summer. Here's what I've been up to:

• Girls Rock Vegas camp. 5 days, 40 girls, 20+ volunteers, and enough guitars/basses/drums for all of them!
• Zion National Park with Steve's family
• My first quilt, which has been cut but not sewn
• Actively searching for a new home with my awesome realtor

Reckless Abandon

... and it is with this reckless abandon that I am splurging on a week-long vacation/road trip through Utah with Steve's family. I realize that Zion is a National Park, but holy cow, hotels there are expensive! Almost as much as in San Diego or Chicago or other expensive hotel cities. I got my flight at twice the normal cost, and I could only find a room for one of the two nights at Zion; everything was sold out! I couldn't figure out why until I realized that it is a HOLIDAY WEEKEND (in Utah).

That's right friends, Utah is celebrating Pioneer Day. Of course I'm grateful for our Pioneer ancestors and their brave and gallant trek across the country... I just wish that it wasn't so expensive to travel to Utah during this state-specific holiday.

Luckily this out-of-town excursion coincides perfectly with my realtor's vacation, so it won't impair my house-buying abilities at all. Staying in town due to real estate emergencies has been trying.

Summertime Blues

This is the first summer since I started teaching that I haven't been able to leave town. Not even once. A nice opportunity came up to meet up with Steve on his family vacation with his parents and brother's family. His brother's family is driving through Vegas on their way to Zion, and I could have caught a ride up there with them. However, between paying for two nights of hotel near Zion National Park on a holiday weekend, plus a pricey flight home from Salt Lake City, it is just completely out the realm of affordability right now. It isn't like $300 is that much money, but to me, that's a credit card payment/2 months of student loan payments/half a mortgage payment.

Boohoo, right? I'm really frustrated because I work so hard all year, I'm financially supporting my mom, and I deserve just a few days to relax on vacation. During the school year, it is impossible to take time off (I don't get any personal days). Here I have eight weeks of vacation, and I'm stuck at home in a house where my mom watches Korean drama DVDs 16+hours a day while chainsmoking.

I seriously can't take this anymore. I need to get out of town. I need to be able to spend some time/money on myself for once.

To Avoid Confusion...

Thanks Jessica W. for pointing this out: http://heatherbay.blogpot.com/


Yah, for future reference, "heatherbay" *dot* blogPOT is definitely NOT my website.


Also for future reference, my blog is NOT a:
"MEGA-SITE of Bible, church, Christian & religious info, & studies. Easy to navigate
If YOU have ANY concern about your future on earth + eternity, it is critical you read this page."

Yah, if you have concern about your future on Earth, I'm really not the person to talk about it with. Um, so, (uncomfortable silence)... yah.

We SURVIVED!

• almost 40 girls, most of which who never touched an instrument before last Monday
• a cast of 25 of the most amazing volunteers ever
• eight classrooms

= Girls Rock Vegas Camp 2010!!!

(Above pic: Our campers enjoying a concert played by Chick Band, a local all-woman band)
More details coming soon after I've had sufficient time to recover!

End of an Era...

Don't get me wrong- I love my 2001 Toyota. I purchased it brand spanking new, and it has been a great car. It has survived countless trips to and from the Motherland, has facilitated moving in and out of several houses/apartments across two states, endured the abuse of hauling my drum set and other music gear, and even survived being rear-ended by a vanful of polygamists (true story). I drove this car to class while I earned a B.A. and a M.Ed. This car moved me into my first classroom, and moved me in and out of three different schools in five years. I discovered that my car has the capacity to fit myself and two passengers, as well as a full drum set, including all hardware and cymbals, a bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and amps. That's a lot for a compact sedan.

Sadly, I fear that our time together is coming to a close. A symphony of undesirable sounds is coming from under the hood and it sounds like a racecar (which it is not) when I exceed 45mph. My coworker has termed my car the "deathmobile." I just hope it can hang on for a few more years until I can afford to replace it with a hovercar. Those should roll off the assembly lines pretty soon, right?

At least the air-conditoning still works!

What a DIfference a Year Makes...

So apparently I've taken to titling blog entries exclusively with songs featured in commercials from bygone eras... but that's another topic for another day. My lovely friend Wendy wrote a blog entry about how she feels that she only blogs when she "has something to kvetch about," and then I realized that I, too, often blog only to complain about this or that. So I decided to read through my blog entries for the last 12 months and tally how many were rant-filled blog entries, and then calculate a percentage. You know, because its not like its 4am and its not like I need sleep.

But don't worry, as soon as I started reading previous blog entries, I was sucked in as if my blogging was indeed a work of mediocre teen literature. And then I got to blog entries from about a year ago at this time... and I recognized that, although I feel I'm at a standstill, life goes on and changes and twists and turns.

Before I use any more tired cliches (which is itself a tired cliche), I will use bullet points to illustrate the differences from 12 months ago:

• THEN: I felt I was a more creative and more energetic writer. NOW: I feel tired and bleh.
• THEN: Girls Rock Vegas was just starting out! NOW: Our girls just played the House of Blues!
• THEN: I got my very first hatemail! NOW: Girls Rock Vegas is supported by the Nevada Arts Council and has a successful partnership with After School All Stars. Don't hate the playa, hate the game (not sure why, but I really felt the need to type that).
• THEN: I was rocking my pink Motorola Razor phone and loving it, even though it only held a battery charge for about 20 minutes. NOW: My beloved pink Razor phone was stolen while I was in D.C. last summer, so now I have a Verizon smartphone. And yes, I feel smarter. And yes, I still have a M*A*S*H ringtone and an Alan Alda background on my display.
• THEN: My laptop emitted high-pitched noises that made my dog hide under furniture. NOW: Dell did right by me and sent a spiffy replacement.
• THEN: Mr. F****, the guy who owned the house next door was a greedy-bastard-slumlord who was basically one shade above a human trafficker as he exploited people trying to make an honest wage (this was when he wasn't threatening the neighbors with trespassing and assault). NOW: Mr. F**** has foreclosed on the house next door. It sold for $49k, when he bought it almost $300k. Don't feel bad, he lives in a $900k in an exclusive Vegas neighborhood... this was just one of his many rental properties. I looked into buying it, but it wouldn't pass an FHA inspection. Some unidentified investor purchased it with cash and is currently renting it to a nice young family who have earned my approval because they don't let their children play ransack my yard (at least not when I'm looking, which is really all I can ask for at this point).
• THEN: I was working in a terrible place where money was misappropriated, staff was abused, and dishonesty and harassment abounded. I was incredibly depressed and so stressed that it was taking a toll on my physical health. NOW: I work at pretty much the best school ever for the most supportive adminstrators I have ever had. When I reflect on the situation last year, it seems like a really bad dream, or at least like an episode of 20/20 I saw once where a school administrator abused a teaching staff so profoundly that they all collectively sued her and won. I can't believe I ever had second thoughts about leaving that place!

Perhaps our friends from Jimmy Eat World were right after all...
It just takes some time,
little girl, you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything, everything will be just fine,
Everything, everything will be alright.
 
Wow. I just quoted Jimmy Eat World. Now it is officially time for bed.

A Busy Week in the Life of Girls Rock Vegas

Yes, at the House of Blues.

And at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

I am really proud of our awesome girls! I am also very grateful for our partnership with After School All Stars and support from the House of Blues Schoolhouse Foundation, as well as from dedicated parents, teachers, and supporters! Girls Rock Vegas is going into our second year, and we have grown in ways I never expected. Last year at this time, when we were planning our first camp, I never would have dreamed that just one year later we'd be playing at the Springs Preserve, let alone the House of Blues! What a great experience for our rockers!!!

We Work Haaaard for the Money

Last Saturday, Girls Rock Vegas rounded up some of our dedicated supporters and we trekked out to Lake Las Vegas to volunteer at the Iron Girl Triathlon. We did everything from handing out medals at the finish line to monitoring the bike course. We raised over $250 for our Girls Rock Vegas Camp financial aid fund! The athletes were amazing and they even managed to inspire many of our Girls Rock Vegas volunteers to start training for next year's triathlon!

What I'm looking forward to this week...

• Tuesday... (morning) Field trip with my 5th graders, (afternoon) Arts in the Park night at school with a Girls Rock Vegas performance
• Wednesday... Girls Rock Vegas dress rehearsal with over 30 elementary school rockers
• Thursday... Girls Rock Vegas show at the Springs Preserve! Steve's flight gets in, too
• Friday... load up Girls Rock Vegas equipment into a giant moving van
• Saturday... Girls Rock Vegas after-school program showcase concert at THE HOUSE OF BLUES!!!
• Sunday... relax

I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon...

This is one of my favorites from www.angrylittlegirls.com.
Love, H